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bekaraar · 4 years

Text

Musicians AU for the AFTG Bingo

Relationships: Kandreil, Kandrew, Kevineil, Andreil

Words: 3631

Warning: past character death

Read on Ao3 here

tea leaves in a guitar

Neil had always wanted to come here. This was Rishikesh in the flesh, majestic Himalayas and the flowing Ganga (Ganges). He took a moment to actually take it all in and made his way to his rented car, contemplating how to thank Stuart for this trip.

Neil knew he wasn’t an easy person to convince. He got it from his mother, so it said something about Stuart’s side of the genes when he managed to convince him to take this trip. It had started with a YouTube video of him playing the keyboard and singing at a shady bar that had gone viral, effectively shutting down any chances he had of continuing to work undercover for the Hartfords. So, he’d agreed, seeing his uncle’s point for letting the hype about the video die down. His uncle had also made the point about the music of Rishikesh and he’d be lying if he said that wasn’t what actually convinced him to go.

And as he looked at the road winding up the steep mountain, he finally understood what exactly made the Beatles come here.

Kevin Day wanted to form a band for a very long time. He had always been in one, but it was never his band per se. It was Riko’s or the Moriyama’s. Never his. For once in his life, Kevin wanted a band that was his.

That had been until he met Andrew Minyard, drugged to the deepest depths of hell (because somehow the word ‘high’ never really seemed to fit. The drugs dragged one down). It was rocky at first, but he got through to him.

It was using something Riko always said.

Everyone wants something.

So, he found out what Andrew want (a reason to live) and instead of taking advantage of him for that, he had worked to giving him that. And along the way, they may have realized they meant more to each other than wanted to admit, and it had taken three attempts and stilted half conversations before Kevin just decided to kiss Andrew (after asking for his explicit permission, of course). It had speeded things up considerably.

They just needed one more person. And Rishikesh was the place he intended to find one.

Determination, Andrew mused, was a good look on Kevin. He looked regal, as he walked into the hotel. Kevin Day had a purpose, and he would not leave without fulfilling it.

Andrew could do this now, the open stares and layered glances. It was allowed, without repercussions, because Kevin was his own person now, and wanted to come out. Andrew knew better that everyone how taxing a secret could be.

He had kept his end of the deal and Kevin had kept his. He had made that fact explicitly clear to Kevin after his first week sober. He had let him know that their this, was his purpose now, even though the drums couldn’t be for him what the guitar was for Kevin.

Kevin had just looked at him with a watery smile and said, “I know.”

So, here he was, with his boyfriend (it still gave him a thrill, even after a year), on the hunt for a musician, while also relaxing and teaching. He couldn’t say he hated the idea of it, but he didn’t particularly like the details either.

Nothing good comes without the bad, anyway.

He took a deep breath and followed Kevin into the ashram.

This, he thought, was trust.

Neil walked into the ashram, and almost immediately wanted to walk out. It wasn’t like he didn't expect something to go wrong, but this was still hilariously unexpected. Just the kind of joke the universe liked to play on him. So, he took a deep breath and walked in.

It is a small place, with something akin to a middle range hotel rooms on the top floor. The floor downstairs is for common meals, shows, and socialization and chai.

He takes comfort in the familiar lettering of Hindi on the board. India had been one of the best trips in his memory, having grown up here for a certain time.

He used it to distract himself from what he knew he was avoiding: the fact that Kevin fucking Day was here.

If the universe wanted anything to happen, it would make it.

He took comfort in the small things.

Neil made his way up to his room and surveyed it.

It had been years since he’d had such an attachment to his bag, but something in him prickled all the same at leaving it unsupervised.

He swallowed his inhibitions and left his bag in the room, making his way downstairs to what he knew would be a meet and greet before the actual yoga and music sessions started the next day.

Andrew didn’t really want to be there, but Kevin did, and he was, as Aaron would say, whipped.

He followed Kevin downstairs, looking for someone to talk to, as Kevin got swept up by the large variety of people looking to talk to the famous Kevin Day.

(There it was. That trust again.)

Interesting people, Andrew thinks, are both rare to find and ridiculously relevant to his mood.

It is a tough and laborious thing to be both hot and captivating. Kevin does it unknowingly. Andrew hates it. And him.

He mad his way to the drinks table, and since there was no alcohol anyway, he entertained himself by trying to mix some of the most ridiculously colored ones.

He could have sworn he felt a gaze burning a crater on the back of his head, and when he looked, he found icy eyes ices and face framed by flames.

Neil did not want to run into Kevin Day or Andrew Minyard.

Of course, the universe (or whatever fucked up being controlled it) didn’t listen to Neil. Ever.

Neil knew he had a conversation with Kevin that was long overdue, but he had intended to avoid Andrew at all costs, a plan that went flying out the window as soon as Andrew decided to walk over to him with a challenge in his eyes.

Kevin could hide pretty much everything behind his press façade, but seeing Nathaniel here was something took him enough by surprise that he had take a moment to gather his thoughts in a bathroom, for fuck’s sake.

So, he excused himself, and went over to Nathaniel, only to find him looking at Andrew with very challenge that he used to look at Kevin with. The one that Kevin knew meant that Nathaniel found Andrew worth his time. Which was saying something. He smiled and went over to Andrew.

(He almost didn't want to interrupt their conversation. It reminded him too much of another person, another life.)

“You know,” he said, making direct eye contact with Nathaniel, “I have to agree with Andrew. Tea is truly despicable.”

Neil stared at Kevin, who calmly stared back and he knew that Kevin saw the exact moment he decided not to run because he saw it in the soft smile he had spent years trying to forget.

So he looked Kevin in the eye and said, “Is that so?”

One of Andrew’s favourite pastimes was riling up people, and his favourite person to tease was Kevin with his pretty lips that he would purse just so when Andrew told him that he was “obsessed” and that cute horrible -really he hates it- nose that he scrunches up when he’s concentrating and Andrew pokes him in his ribs.

Really, he’s Andrew’s favourite, but Neil might be the second.

It’s entertaining (or as close as anything is going to get) to see him twist that perfect mouth that Andrew can imagine doing so many other things-

He takes a breath and looks at Neil, who is now having a very energetic conversation of the merits and demerits of tea and coffee respectively and if Andrew hadn’t spent so long convincing Neil he hated tea, he might even team up with him here but Andrew was nothing if not outrageously dedicated.

Andrew exhales softly and apologizes to Bee and to tea as a whole, as he says:

“I agree with Kevin. Tea… is man’s worst invention.”

It was a blessing that Neil was looking at him right then because Andrew saw Kevin choke on air as he heard what Andrew said next.

“So, why don’t you try to convince us to like tea?”

Neil smirked and met his challenge head on.

“Prepare to lose.”

He gave them one last cursory glance as he walked away.

“I thought you loved tea?”

“I do,” Andrew says, smiling softly, as he and Kevin make their way up to their room.

Kevin huffs in amusement and Andrew smiles as he pulls him down for a kiss.

“You seem to know him.”

Andrew watches Kevin sigh and run a hand through his hair.

“He’s Nathaniel.”

Oh.

Neil had made his getaway nicely, but the complete shock of Kevin deciding not to confront him right there still stayed. He knew he was just putting off the inevitable, but he decided not to speak of it till Kevin did.

He just hoped Kevin still shied away from the truth how much he did in the Nest.

Neil distracted himself by planning to introduce those imbeciles to the delights of tea, even if he had to sweeten it enough to choke the devil. Neil smiled as he took two packets of tea from his suitcase, his favourites. But for Andrew, he had a different flavour in mind.

Chocolate tea.

Neil hated it. With every fibre of his being. He’d rather drink hot chocolate if he had to introduce his body to the sickly-sweet concoction, but that was exactly why Andrew would love it.

Minyard had no clue what was coming at him.

As for Kevin, Neil had given up on his liking tea long ago but he had one last angle to give this.

Kale-honey tea.

(for his voice)

Neil loved his voice. It was just the perfect balance of rough and caressing, deep enough to envelope him just so.

It also matched perfectly with his own voice. Neil missed all of it. The last two years they had shared before Riko’s suicide. And then Kevin had left. Neil had pushed him away after that.

Maybe now was the time to forgive.

Neil sighed.

He wanted to kiss Kevin senseless, slowly and wanted to be kissed by Andrew.

He made himself a warm cup of chamomile tea and watched the distant mountains as the wind caressed him softly.

If he heard someone playing the song he and Kevin had composed, he wasn’t surprised.

Kevin looked at Andrew as he realized just how fucked they were.

“So, that’s Nathaniel.”

Kevin nodded

“Wow,” Andrew’s treacherous mouth said, “You didn’t tell me he’s so hot.”

Kevin shook his head and rubbed his neck.

“I expected him to hate me.”

“Kevin. Look at me.”

Kevin did, almost irritated.

“You left Jean and him for a good reason. Sometimes, you can’t save everyone you want to.”

“I know. It’s just,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “Jean was his partner.”

Andrew held Kevin close as he cried.

Neil studiously avoided Kevin and Andrew all through the morning and tried his best at lunch, which turned out be a little hard considering the fact that there was two of them and one of him. Finally he acquiesced, and turned to look at what turned out to be only Kevin.

“Yes?” he asked testily.

Kevin swallowed inconspicuously and met Neil’s gaze.

“Why don’t you hate me?”

“Why do you think I don’t hate you?”

Understanding dawned in Kevin’s eyes.

“You think it was my fault.”

“Well,” Neil said, raising his voice just a little bit “Whose fault was it? Jean’s?”

“No, I-”

“You don’t get to apologize! Your apologies won’t make him any less dead! Riko may have killed him, Kevin, but it was you who handed him the knife.”

Kevin stepped back as if he’d been slapped.

“Neil, listen-”

“No.”

Kevin stepped aside to let him go. As he stared at Neil’s retreating form, he felt a suffocating hopelessness course through him.

Andrew came up to him, and placed an arm around his waist and led him up to their room, but Kevin didn’t wasn’t any of that right now.

“Hold the fuck up, Neil.”

Neil turned to look at him and opened his mouth to give him a piece of his mind but Kevin stalked over before he could.

“Do you even know why I left? You think a stupid injury could push me to leave?” Kevin laughed, twistedly, and it sent shivers up Neil’s spine.

“You know, he saw us. All the time, when we thought we were safe? He saw us. He saw me with you. You with Jean. Jean with me. He took advantage of it.”

Kevin took a deep breath in.

“He knew I’d do anything for you both.”

Finally, Neil understood.

“He broke your hand out of jealousy.”

Kevin nodded.

“And I left so that I could get you out.”

“But you didn’t realize to what extent his anger ran.”

“No,” Kevin sighed. “I didn’t.”

It sounded a lot like defeat.

Neil stared at Kevin.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

Kevin stared flatly at him.

“Because you disappeared off the face of the fucking earth.”

Neil sighed as he stared at Kevin.

“I never really blamed you anyway.”

“You what.”

Neil sighed again

“I’m sorry. I just- You know we had something right -”

“Uh.”

“What?”

“See, I’m dating Andrew-”

“Oh,” Neil said.

“Yeah,” Kevin says.

Neil looks away, slowly.

“The challenge is still on, though?”

“Oh, yeah,” Neil says, the glint returning to his eye.

Andrew needed to hide his favourite teas from Neil. He knew it wouldn’t be long till he figured it out, and he did not want to take that chance.

He had discovered exactly eight packets of chocolate tea scattered in his and Kevin’s baggage and devised increasingly ridiculous places to hide them, much to Kevin’s amusement and disgust.

“We have no clue how long that’s been there, Drew,” he said regarding the small box of coffee Andrew found behind the cupboards.

Andrew just smiled as he transferred the coffee powder to a jar and emptied a packet of tea into the coffee box.

(If he hid a packet in Kevin’s guitar, no one had to know.)

The more that Neil thought about it (and he thought quite a lot) it seemed extremely unlikely that Andrew actually hated tea. It even seemed impossible.

If anything, Neil knew Kevin as well as he knew himself (better even, the Nest wasn’t the best) and he knew Kevin absolutely loathed tea (something about Irish coffee) and it seemed obvious that Andrew was just the contrary kind of person to develop a taste for it just to annoy Kevin. It’s something Neil would do if Stuart hadn’t already conditioned him to liking tea. So, the obvious conclusion was this: Andrew was clearly lying. Now Neil just needed to confront him.

Kevin was trying to bake his sorrows along with the cookies that he was trying not to burn when there was a knock at the door of their room.

He opens it and Neil walks in looking around, as if it was his room.

Kevin raises both his eyebrows, and with all the judgement he can muster, says, “Excuse you?”

Neil looks at him with an air of Oh my god, can you believe this idiot , and says,“I know Andrew hates tea.”

Kein grins like Neil just gave him three kittens.

“You just won me twenty dollars.”

Neil stares at him like a grumpy cat and Kevin is realizes just how well he knows Neil.

“Andrew and I bet over how long it’d take you to come down here.”

Neil continues staring at him.

“Andrew bet till you’d last till the evening and I said you wouldn’t wait till then.”

Neil breaks out into a grin as he stares up at Kevin.

Kevin takes a deep breath.

I want to kiss you, he wants to say, but doesn’t.

It had taken ages for his thing with Andrew to make sense and he didn’t want to ruin it now.

He offers Neil some cookies when he leaves.

Andrew wakes up more tired than when he slept.

He walks out and sees Kevin surrounded by approximately eight batches of cookies. Andrew does enjoy his baking, but he also enjoys a working body.

He walks over to kevin, who is looking out the window mournfully.

“Neil?” Andrew asks Kevin and he looks over at him with the same mournful face he had been regarding the teas with.

“I wanted to kiss him,” Kevin said honestly, and Andrew looked at him almost amusedly.

“What if even I wanted to?”

Kevin’s eyes widened and he choked on his own spit.

“What the fuck?”

Andrew continued looking at him with a slight smile on his lips.

“Answer me.”

“I’d be fine with that,” Kevin replied, confused, “Only if I can too.”

Andrew smiled fully and pulled Kevin down for a kiss.

He couldn’t wait for Neil to come over.

This was their last evening free before the performances and enrichments started. Enrichments, Neil thought with scorn. Too much of a pride to call the classes.

He sat back in his chair with a book, a fictitious one of no great value, but it was enthralling just the same. He still had an hour to meet Kevin and Andrew, and he was unable to concentrate.

It seemed weird to him, the fact that Andrew was blatantly flirting wit him, yet Kevin seemed almost hesitant to make a move when he so clearly wanted to. Something he knew Neil wanted too. Andrew, Neil felt, was the unknown in the equation, the unforeseen. Neil would never have seen himself falling in love with someone whose personality could only be described and ‘whimsical’ and ‘cat like’.

There was also the fact to consider that he was five feet and dating Kevin Day.

He sighed, and then sighed again at the fact that he seemed to be sighing a lot these past few days.

He got up and put away his book. If wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else, he’d rather concentrate on the tea dilemma, as he liked to call it.

It was now clarified that Andrew loves tea. Neil just needed evidence.

Neil would be lying if he said that he missed the thrill of the undercover jobs that he did for Stuart, but this, he thought was taking it too far. He was hanging over a busy street and his only anchor, was the narrow windowsill of windows that were almost a feet apart. He just had to make across five to reach Kevin and Andrew’s room.

He allowed himself a moment’s relaxation before moving.

Andrew realized that seeing his boyfriend’s ex who they were both not over yet snooping in their kitchen should have set Andrew’s alarm bells on fire, but the only thing his brain could come up with was hot damn, and honestly, that was not helpful.

Judging by the way Kevin was looking over at Neil, he probably felt the same.

Not helpful at all.

Usually, Neil thought, getting caught would mean death, but this time, getting caught meant embarrassment.

Exclaiming “Ah hah!” while holding a box of tea leaves (it was chocolate!!!) was not quite the impression that he wanted to make, but what was done was done, so he improvised.

“I found your tea!”

In retrospect, saying that with the same tone a diabolical villain would use was also not a good idea, but neither Kevin nor Andrew seemed to think so.

Andrew looked at Neil, enamoured.

“Fuck,” he heard himself saying, “Can I kiss you?”

He saw Neil eyes get wide and a blush creep up his neck in the prettiest way possible before he covered the distance and did what he had been waiting to do for years days.

He kissed Neil.

Much to Kevin’s chagrin. They were so hot, it was unfair, his brain thought and he could only hope he hadn’t said that aloud.

Later that night, Neil lay on the couch, next to Kevin, hugging him, as Kevin slowly told him about the last three months he spent with Jean before it all went to shit.

Andrew was inside, on their bed, furiously typing away at something that he refused to share with any of them. Neil walked over to him and sat down next to him. He was still not as comfortable with Andrew as he was with Kevin, which was understandable.

Talking to Kevin had been like falling back into a routine he didn’t know he missed so much. It was natural, happy, and though there was always going to be that grief that came with everything they’d fought and everyone they’d loved and lost along the way, they were here now and they were going to make it.

“So,” Andrew said, not looking up, “Where’d you find the tea?”

Neil laughed at looked at him softly.

“In your guitar. And speaking of which, I won our little competition.”

“Oh,” Andrew said looking up in interest, “Would you like a prize?”

Neil laughed, then sobered up.

“Yeah,” he said. “Maybe I do.”

Kevin came and sat down next to them on the bed.

“What a about our band?” he suggested. “We need a back up vocalist, someone good on the keyboard, and you fit the bill.”

Neil looked at them incredulously, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“What do you want to name it?”

Andrew looked between them, eyes sharp.

“Tea leaves in a guitar.”

#aftgbingo #2020 #aftg bingo #kevin day #andrew minyard #neil josten #kandreil #kevineil #kandrew #andreil #aftg #the foxhole court #tfc #tkm #trk #all for the game #fanfic #jay speaks #musician au

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nickireadstfc · 6 years

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The King’s Men, Chapter 13 – WHAT THE FUCK, Pt. 2

In which Neil’s father happens.

Sounds good? Who are we kidding. It’s time for Nicki to read The King’s Men.

So.

We finally made it here after all, huh?

Glad you’ve come around to watch the show, friends. Gather round, sit down with a blanket and a book to clutch, and get ready for literal hell.

Our boy has been running from this for two and a half books, and now he’s finally – unfortunately – made it. Neil has stopped running, has stopped hiding, has shed his lies and his disguises and even his name, and has overall wished his life goodbye.

Except, well.

We, of course, have not.

Let’s go.

Lola had lined the back of his hand with crosshatches and burned angry circles into his knuckles. Another burn mark stained the tender flesh between his thumb and index finger. The burns were starting to ooze, but dried blood smothered most of the mess.

Holy shit.

My non-native English speaking ass had to look up what crosshatch is, and yeah, Lola essentially cut Neil’s (Nathaniel’s?) hand up into a nice argyle pattern.

What the fuck. #deathoutforlolamalcolm

(Thank you to permanentchaos for this gem of a hashtag.)

He was in the cellar, which meant they’d come in through the garage. An underground tunnel led from one to the other, installed for the sole purpose of moving the occasional body.

Natch.

Fucking natch that this man would have a BODY MOVING TUNNEL.

The Extra™ runs in the family, apparently.

Nathaniel and his mother had escaped through it nine years ago. It was only fitting that he was returned home the same way.

Okay, nice. That’s some good ass poetic symmetry right there folks.

I’m in a state of anxiety and dread right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate some sweet sweet writing.

Nathaniel brandished his hands at [Lola]. “These are going to get infected if I don’t clean them soon.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”

“You’re not me,” Nathaniel said, and got to his feet.

Glad to see that Nathaniel is as much of a sassy shit as Neil was.

I’m not kidding, this had been an actual concern of mine.

However, my tiny flicker of enjoyment of this scene is quickly dissolved as things developed and they had to develop – we meet The Man™.

Mr Chop Chop himself, Nathan Wesninski, has entered the room, accompanied by his bodyguard Arnold Schwarzenegger, Evil Edition.

Oh boy.

“On your feet,” Nathan said. (…) “You know better than to sit in my presence.”

Nathaniel told himself to stay put, but he was already getting up.

Heck nope.

Just this bit right here already tells us so much about this character and the power dominance in his relationship to Nathaniel, and those are legit his first few lines.

Nathaniel has been so conditioned to follow his father’s orders that he literally can’t not do it. Jesus fuck.

Bless you (but also curse you), Nora, for always introducing characters so spot on.

“My son,” Nathan said. “My greatest disappointment in life. Where is my second greatest?”

“Mom is dead,” Nathaniel said.

Holy sHIT.

“My second greatest”, can Nora STOP WRITING SUCH GOOD VILLIANS.

This is a+ wording right there.

I am very, very quickly eating my words about my appreciation of Nathan’s character as he shares some of his, well, fantasies. And not the sexy kind.

(Although I would have a similarly repulsed reaction to hearing Nathan Wesninski’s sexual fantasies, thank you very much.)

“I’m indecisive. I might skin you alive. I might take you apart one inch at a time and cauterize the wounds. I think no matter what I choose we are going to start by slicing the tendons in your legs.”

Any other time, I would have called him out for being ~Dramatic~, but after what Lola did to Nathaniel in the car and how much she was not overstating her cruelty, I’m kinda fucking terrified.

And mind you, Lola is supposed to be the watered down version of Mr Chop Chop.

Where do I sign up for an exit program right the fuck now.

“Fuck you,” Nathaniel spat at him, voice sharp with horror.

Glad to see Nathaniel keeping up the Brand™ even in this time of stress.

And by glad I mean absolutely peeing myself in fear.

Metal flashed a scarce inch from [Nathaniel’s] face as Nathan took a swing with the axe.

And with that, Nathaniel’s father, his gang, his cleaver and his axe set to doing good on their word.

All of this is of course very reminiscent of Neil’s scar-inducing trip to Evermore in The Raven King, except in TRK most of the torture done to him was off-screen, whereas here it is very fucking not so.

I am attributing it solely to my dad exposing me to violent action movies at a young age that I did not get sick reading this.

This is an 18+ book, folks. And in all seriousness, I feel like there should have been a warning about that somewhere.

I am sparing y’all the descriptions of the following pages because you’ve already been through it once already, but.

Please know that this is the most explicitly violent, brutal and terrifying shit that has gone down in this entire series so far (and also, I hope, ever.)

“We’ll slit your ankles, then your knees,” Nathan told Nathaniel. “And if you try to crawl away I will take your arms from you too.”

Literally HOW IS THIS MAN REAL.

(He’s not. He’s fictional. I know that. Shut up.)

HOW DOES SOMEONE DO SHIT LIKE THIS. HOW DOES SOMEONE DO SHIT LIKE THIS TO THEIR OWN SON.

I’m quitting. I am the fuck OUT.

Nice knowing y’all, but I am deleting this account, see y’all nev–

“Lola,” Nathan said, but he didn’t get to finish.

The cellar door opened from the outside, and a swarm of strangers came in shooting.

Wait, what.

Oh SHIT.

STUART’S HERE, the badass distant uncle has come to save the day.

Does this feel a little ex machina? Yes.

Do I care? Absolutely the fuck not, because now my boy Nathaniel gets to live another day with both of his legs intact.

Nathan was kneeling in the middle of the room with four guns aimed at his head. He started to get to his feet, but someone knocked him back down with the butt of a rifle.

Now that’s what I like to see, folks.

Hit that fucker.

“How dare you,” Nathan said savagely. “You defy Moriyama by coming here and killing my men. You are a dead man walking. You don’t have the power to–“

Stuart didn’t let him finish. Nathan’s body jerked as two bullets punched holes into his chest.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL QUALITY CONTENT.

HECK YEAAAHHHHHHH.

When his father is killed, though, Nathaniel has an interesting experience:

That wrenching feeling in his chest wasn’t grief, but a need so fierce Nathaniel thought it would kill him. (…) He couldn’t breathe, much less explain the terrifying exhilaration.

Sounds to me like he’s experiencing Wanting To Have Killed Daddy Himself, but I could be wrong?

Could also be relief, if you consider that Nathaniel legit spent over half of his life running from that guy.

I am mildly confused here as to whether this is what Nora means or if we’re not supposed to understand this feeling either and it’ll be revealed/explained later.

If anyone has anything (spoiler-free) to offer on this, hit me up.

Moving on – Stuart Ex Machina gets Nathaniel out of the house and hands him right over to the FBI, which is at least better than the Torture Cellar of Hell.

“My name is Nathaniel Wesninski,” he said, “and my father is dead.”

HECK YEAH.

Tattoo this sentence on my forehead, please and thank you.

We’ve been waiting for this for TWO AND A HALF BOOKS, I lowkey can’t believe we’re finally here.

This new development is also pretty okay by Nathaniel (and me), seeing as it’ll finally provide him with some good good medical attention.

Oh, and also opportunities to be a sassy shit.

“Are you going to be a problem for us?”

Nathaniel struggled to look up and focus on the man’s face. “I’ve been a problem for nineteen years. I’m too tired to be one tonight.”

I love this boy, whether Neil or Nathaniel or whoever.

Said boy then – understandably – passes the fuck out, and wakes again in a place where I wished he would have been approximately fifty times those past two and a half books:

A goddamn hospital, getting himself goddamn patched up.

Oh, also the feds are here.

Oh, also he’s kind of under arrest.

What can you do.

“We’ve got a string of offenses we could charge you with, starting with the fake IDs in your wallet and escalating to your mother’s current whereabouts. Just let us know if we’ve got to play hardball.”

Nathaniel made a rude noise. “You couldn’t at least use an Exy idiom?”

I am CACKLING.

This absolute NERD.

„Yes officer, you have me arrested, but gosh fuckin darnit honor the might Exy, will you.”

Nathaniel, despite what he said to them last night, continues being A Problem for the FBI, answering only the minimum of questions and then turning to repeating pretty much one phrase, despite what the feds try to bribe/threaten him with:

“I want to see my teammates.”

Fucking iconic.

Oh yeah, also said teammates have been brought in for questioning and now know everything about Nathaniel’s dirty gritty backstory. Oops.

I doubt they will care, but apparently the FBI does not share my opinion.

“You’re wrong,” Nathaniel said. “They can’t leave without Andrew, and Andrew won’t go anywhere until he talks to me.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

HECK YES HE DOES.

Andrew will absolutely rip him a new one for hiding all this shit from him, but I’ll be damned if he won’t activate heaven and earth to see his boyfriend.

“You can take me to him, or you can let me rot silently in a cell somewhere. Those are your only options.”

Heck YES.

God, those two. <3

The FBI are not as hyped about Andreil as I am, sadly, and the next day they take him away into custody without letting him see anyone.

A blasted shame.

Nathaniel couldn’t sleep, but at least he could daydream his father’s death over and over again. That was almost enough to make him smile, and eventually it thawed the chill from his veins.

And in a way, that is strangely comforting.

I’ll see y’all next week.

If you like what I do here and you want to help me through the heartbreak of this chapter, why not buy me a coffee? Every lil bit helps, getting me through uni and all that jazz. Thanks so much!

#tfc #the foxhole court #aftg #all for the game #andreil #tkm #the king's men #nora sakavic #nicki reads tfc #I'M BACK Y'ALL #regular updates again from next week on #thx for bearing with me #please come cry in my inbox if you have feelings bc bish me too

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likeappletrees · 7 years

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some of my favorite short films (in no particular order)

So @slyindoorssmoke asked me for a few short film recommendations and the list ended up a bit bigger than either of us expected, so I thought I’d post them here. The films below range from disturbing to touchy-feely to entirely style-over-substance, and I can’t really explain why I particularly like some of them. I might have forgotten some favorites, so a second version of this post may be made.

Click on the title in bold to go straight to the film or trailer.

Michelle, I hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Action

7.2 dir. Nida Manzoor (14 minutes): Cleo, a schoolgirl, regains consciousness to find herself lying on the ground with no memory of who she is, only to be confronted by Daisy, the school bully, who issues a cryptic ultimatum. (also very funny)

Hit TV dir. Saman Kesh (12 minutes): An illegal TV show appears every night posting murderous bounties. The organization running the show highjacks broadcast channels to air a haunting call-to-action where people are identified for murder and priced accordingly. (apparently this film is also called “The Prologue” although of what I'm not sure)

Comedy

1500 Words dir. Andrew Chaplin (9 minutes): When Stanley Franks is told he has 1500 words left to live, he faces a battle to keep both his marriage and himself alive using the fewest words possible.

The Black Hole dir. Philip Sansom and Olly Williams (2 minutes): A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole. (hashtag Relatable)

JohnnyExpress dir. Kyungmin Woo (5 minutes): Johnny is a space delivery man who travels to different planets to deliver packages. However, things never go as planned.

Movie Mind Machine dir. Maureen Bharoocha (12 minutes): Two movie buffs invent a memory-erasing machine that allows them to watch their favorite movies over and over again like the first time. (who wouldn't?)

Sudden Death! dir. Adam Hall (19 minutes): Finally, a musical where everybody dies.

What Cheer? dir. Michael Slavens (17 minutes): After the sudden passing of his wife, Stan (Richard Kind) finds himself in a state of shock. He tries to ignore his pain but finds himself followed by inescapable grief. (I know what you're thinking, and I'm telling you, it's much better)

Drama

1985 dir. Yen Tan (9 minutes): A dying man seeks out a beauty consultant to hide his symptoms.

Goodbye Blue Sky dir. Brandon Zuck (17 minutes): Long after the end of the world, five strangers sharing an abandoned desert motel are forced to decide between love and survival. (bad acting, but in an endearing way)

Hala dir. Minhal Baig (14 minutes): A Muslim-American teenager struggles to reconcile desire with family obligations.

He Took His Skin Off for Me dir. Ben Aston (11 minutes): A simple, domestic love story about a man who takes his skin off for his girlfriend, and why it probably wasn't the best idea.

I Don’t Care dir. Harry Wootliff (24 minutes): Luka Bartholomew cares for his bed-ridden mother in the run-down resort town of Porthpunnet. On his thirtieth birthday his mother hires a carer to give him a day off. (starring the loves of my life Iwan Rheon and David Leon)

SLAP dir. Nick Rowland (25 minutes): A teenage boxer searching for self-definition gives in to his true colours at the risk of losing everything.

Still In the Cage dir. Jonathan Desbiens (20 minutes): Three girls journey from the city to the jungle in search of an abandoned settlement in the hope of becoming “free spirits”. (essentially a Skrillex music video, but still pretty good)

The Wilding dir. Grant Scicluna (15 minutes): When juvenile inmate Malcolm is offered a chance at parole, he is torn between his chance for freedom and protecting the one he loves. (I could only find the link to the trailer, sorry!)

Horror

The Pig Child dir. Lucy Campbell (17 minutes): A scientist makes a reckless decision to carry on with an illegal surrogacy experiment, using her own body.

The Root of the Problem dir. Ryan Spindell (13 minutes): In the candy-colored world of 1950’s suburbia, a reluctant housewife suspects that the friendly neighborhood dentist is hiding a horrible secret... but is it just the anesthesia, or is something more sinister hiding just below the surface?

So Pretty dir. James Williams (9 minutes): Late at night, on the last train home, one girl's fantasy is about to become her greatest nightmare. (basically a Twilight parody)

Tonight It's You dir. Dominic Haxton (17 minutes): CJ ventures out for a late night hook up when things take a dark turn, leading him into something much more sinister than he could ever imagine.

Science fiction

ANA dir. Factory Fifteen (4 minutes): The sole human worker in a futuristic car manufacturing plant is tricked into relinquishing control to the A.I. that runs production.

The Awareness dir. Henry Dunham (18 minutes): On the eve of a technological breakthrough, an insignificant janitor and a prominent engineer are faced with a decision that will alter the course of humanity: the release of the first aware computer system into the world.

The Brain Hack dir. Joe White (19 minutes): Two students create a short-cut to induce hallucinogenic visions of God, and find themselves hunted by a deadly religious sect. (huge epilepsy warning)

Controller dir. Saman Kesh (8 minutes): A girl that can control everything perpetrates her own rescue by taking control of her boyfriend. (I don't know why she doesn't control her captors and the extent of her powers is never revealed, but it's incredibly stylish, so that's why it's on the list. Saman Kesh advises to play it loud and in full-screen)

The Landing dir. Josh Tanner (18 minutes): A man returns to the Midwestern farm of his childhood on a desperate mission to unearth the horrifying truth of what landed there in the summer of 1960.

Lost Memories dir. François Ferracci (3 minutes): A beautiful couple, a city over-saturated by holograms and digital stream. A Polaroid camera. Tomorrow will never be the same. (I don't particularly agree with the overall message conveyed in the film, but I can appreciate the perspective; has a sequel, Lost Memories 2.0)

The Narrow World dir. Brent Bonacorso (15 minutes): A giant alien creature comes to Earth. The reasons for its arrival, however, remain unknown as mankind fails to make contact with the visitor. (very similar to Arrival, but with the optimism of Pacific Rim)

Payload dir. Stuart Willis (18 minutes): A family of scavengers. A corrupt spaceport. A callous matriarch. A home in the shadow of a space elevator. After a brutal attack on his father, Simon Carter must sacrifice everything to save his family. (not particularly good, but it intrigued me for some inexplicable reason)

We Ate the Children Last dir. Andrew Cividino (12 minutes): What happens when society embraces a radical medical breakthrough without fully understanding its side effects?

Thriller

Bugcrush dir. Carter Smith (36 minutes): A small-town loner's fascination with the new kid in town leads him into something much more sinister than he could ever have imagined. (also just the trailer. Sorry!)

Prosopagnosia dir. Hugo Keijzer (18 minutes): Alfred finds his best friend Julia dead in her apartment and looks the perpetrator right in the eyes. He is unable to identify him, because of his extremely rare condition known as face blindness, or prosopagnosia.

#slyindoorssmoke #short films #my shit

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treshorneboys · 7 years

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I know why the caged bird sings

Read it on AO3

Chapter 3/? - 1 / 2

Almost a decade of experience had trained Neil to be instantly awake and alert as soon as he woke up, and because he was such a light sleeper the slightest hint of daylight would wake him. The first sliver of sunlight peeked through the living room windows at around 6 in the morning, and as soon as Neil was up he initiated his plan; he had a limited amount of time to do what he needed to do. From the small amount of Nicky’s ramblings that Neil listened to, he knew that usually everyone except Kevin was up before 9:30, but the fact he didn’t know exactly when set Neil’s teeth on edge. Nevertheless, waiting a few days to memorise everyone’s sleeping patterns and leaving his things vulnerable had a slightly higher risk than leaving his duffle alone for a few hours. Neil would take his duffle along with him but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to juggle all the things he had to buy along with it, even if the store as only 10 minutes away by foot.

Neil should be thankful for that, at least- if there was only one constant in his life it was a 24hr Walmart.

After searching for the bathroom as quietly as possible so that he could brush his teeth and change his clothes, Neil took a wad of cash out of his duffle and shoved the duffle under the couch; it was the only place he could think to store it where someone wouldn’t accidentally stumble upon it. Making sure the money as secure in his pocket and pausing once to make sure he didn’t hear anyone starting to wake up, Neil left; ensuring that the front door was unlocked so that he could get back in when he was finished.

Running was an activity Neil did often; it kept his body fit and helped increase his lung capacity and strength. He wouldn’t necessarily say that he liked running, it was more of a habit he formed over the years that stuck and had become second nature to him. When he felt the need to run, it was like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch- a borderline addiction.

At the store, he gathered the things he needed as quickly as possible- hair dye, toiletries, an extra pillow and blanket as the ones Neil slept with last night were threadbare, and he might as well make the most of comfort while he could. He then made his way to the hardware section, where there was a limited choice of fireproof safes, none of them big enough to hold his entire duffle. However, they were big enough to hide the one thing that he needed to hide, so he lugged one to the checkout with all his other items, and awkwardly walked back to the house.

He made good time, slipping through the front door as silently as possible before pausing and straining his ears for any sign of movement. Satisfied with the following silence, Neil breathed a little easier, and moved to the living room to deposit his things on the couch before pulling his duffel bag out from underneath it.

Neil’s breath stopped when he opened his duffel and examined the contents. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be, folded and arranged so that it fit perfectly into the bag, however on closer examination the contents weren’t exactly how Neil had left them. He had inherited his Mother’s paranoia, so whenever he repacked his things he made sure to carefully fold each of his shirt tags in half; at that moment, they were perfectly straight, pressed flat by a meticulous hand.

He began digging through the insides of his bag, throwing his clothing to the side, hands impatient in their quest to get to the bottom, to the most important item in his possession- his binder. It was unassuming, a previously sleek black, the finish having been worn away a long time ago by nervous hands. Inside the binder looked like a stalker’s journal- photos, newspaper clippings, anything he could find that touched the subject of Kevin Day’s and Riko Moriyama’s lives and careers. But these pages were just a cover-up for the real reason Neil kept this binder. He opened up the pockets that the sheets made, finding the legacy of his Mother; fat stacks of hundred-dollar bills, a coded list of emergency contacts including his Uncle Stuart’s number, and a forged optometrist’s note along with a box of brown contacts. He counted through the money carefully, finding that it was the same amount as the last time he checked- just about a quarter of a million dollars. With all his security checks done, Neil stowed his binder in his new safe, stowed his things back in his duffel, and tried to fight against the red-hot anger that struggled to overtake him.

The fight was futile, after all he was his father’s son.

Underneath the sole of his shoe Neil had hidden his lockpicks, which he pulled out in a furious daze. If he was telling the truth, Neil wasn’t just furious at the person who had gone through his bag (he knew it was Andrew, he had always known to trust his instincts. Also, Neil wasn’t dumb), he was furious at himself for making so many mistakes in only two days; his Mother would have beaten him black and blue if she were here. Neil shook the thought out of his mind and marched up the stairs, knocking loudly and vigorously on the first door he came across, which was soon opened by a sleep-rumpled Nicky.

“Which room is Andrew’s?” Neil all but hissed.

“To the right,” Nicky yawned, scratching at his stomach, “Why? What ti-”

Before Nicky could finish, Neil had already made his way over to the door, crouched down, and started efficiently picking the lock. The lock was standard, no match for Neil, he had picked more difficult locks in the past. Nicky still stood in his doorway, watching Neil with his mouth half-open, looking as if the current circumstances hadn’t quite reached his brain yet.

Neil heard the lock click which finally prompted Nicky’s mouth to snap shut and then open again, presumably in preparation of forming a sentence, but Neil had already stepped inside the room to find Andrew sitting on a desk, smoking out of the window.

“Neil,” he said, “what a surprise.”

Neil slammed the door shut in Nicky’s face and stepped forward once more. He briefly thought of the phrase ‘stepping into the lion’s den’, and thought it an apt description of the current circumstances he was facing. Even so, he was angry; and when Neil got angry he got reckless.

“Stay out of my things,” he growled, “or I swear I’ll make you regret it.”

“Will you now?” Andrew raised his eyebrow, “and how would you do that?” he tapped the end of his cigarette consideringly, “Well, you could be quite creative- anything’s possible with the amount of money you carry.”

“Fuck off, you had no right.”

“Call it intuition, runaway.”

Neil barely suppressed a flinch, by the way his eyebrows slightly raised Andrew noticed.

“Now I have an idea of how to deal with you, and an even more complex conundrum to solve. Everybody wins!”

The fake-cheer in Andrew’s voice as disconcerting against his normal apathetic tone. When he continued the inflection was gone, as though it never happened.

“Do you want to hear a story, Neil? Though if my hypothesis is correct, you may already know it.”

“I don’t want to hear a single word of shit that spews from your obnoxious mouth.”

“Are you sure? As it involves both Kevin Day and Riko Moriyama; two people you apparently have a raging hard-on for, if that binder is anything to go by.”

Neil didn’t want to affirm Andrew’s statement by staying silent, but Andrew continued before he had the chance to reply.

“You see,” he said, “once upon a time, Riko and Kevin were a duo, thick as thieves, number one and number two. Number one being Riko, as you probably already know; Kevin being shunted to second best. But you see, Kevin, being the golden child that he is was just too good for that, and started outgrowing the number 2 on his cheekbone. Riko very much didn’t like it. Riko is a bit of a brat with quite a bit of power, and he has people who are loyal to him- or at least to his fame. So he has a tantrum, eliminates the threat,” Andrew stretched out his hand, spread wide open so that it covered Neil’s face, slowly dawning with realisation. He clenched his fingers shut a few times before continuing.

“So Kevin’s hand is broken in a ‘skiing accident’ according to Riko’s PR team, and Kevin is left to pick up the pieces,” Andrew then lowers his arm slowly, and looks at Neil, his gaze piercing, “and as soon as Kevin starts to get back on track, you show up- a boy made of secrets and lies with an insofar unexplainable tie to Kevin and Riko. You get where I’m going with this?”

“You think I’m trying to… infiltrate? For Riko? You must be as dense as you are insane.”

“Then prove that you aren’t, because you’re sure as hell not convincing me right now. Give me something real in your counterfeit.”

Neil didn’t get the chance to answer, as Kevin chose that moment to burst through the door, Nicky following on his heels, a hurricane just strong enough to break the tension.

“What the fuck is going on? Nicky wakes me up at 7:30 in the fucking morning babbling about fucking lock picking? Explain yourselves, especially you,” he glowered at Neil.

Neil’s blood boiled, he could only put up with so much shit and Kevin talking to him like he was an insect was just the icing on the cake. Aaron had also woken up from the noise and went to stand next to Nicky, scowling at anything and everyone.

“What the fuck is his problem?” Aaron said in German, eyes flickering over to Neil, and it was the cherry on top. But two could play at the different languages game, so Neil switched to French; he knew that Kevin had spent a few years there in his youth.

“Put a fucking leash on your mutt or I will. I’ve only been here one night and he’s already trying my patience. I will not tolerate him invading my privacy again, tell me you understand.”

There was a pause, silence descending over the room as Kevin visibly processed the abrupt change in language through his mind. Andrew had stubbed his cigarette out on the windowsill, looking as if he expected a translation and knowing he wasn’t going to get one.

“Looks like this puzzle is going to be even bigger than I first thought,” he mused, and as subsequently ignored.

“I understand,” Kevin said, “but I don’t care. You agreed to this, so you can’t back out now. Andrew takes his promises very seriously.”

“I did not agree to this,” Neil spat, “I agreed to humouring your twisted fantasy, but you can’t claw your way back to the top with only one hand, cripple.”

Kevin’s face twisted in fury, but before he could advance on Neil Andrew was suddenly there.

“Now now Kevin,” he said, his indifferent tone only ratcheting up the pressure in the room, “don’t do anything you might regret, remember your master plan? It won’t work if you strangle his vocal chords shut.”

Miraculously, Kevin did back down, which gave Neil an opening to escape before things got worse. He pushed past Aaron and Nicky who were still in the doorway, and started to make his way downstairs.

“Remember, practice at half 12,” Andrew called after him.

Neil didn’t reply, and even though he’d just got back from a jog he almost blew his legs out on his run.

#the foxhole court #all for the game #all for the game series #neil josten #andrew minyard #kevin day #nicky hemmick #aaron minyard #aftg #fanfiction #fanfic #ikwtcbs #the caged bird series

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meganrosereads-blog · 6 years

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2018 New Releases

I love finding new releases. There’s something just so satisfying (and smug) about being one of the first to read an amazing book before everyone else. I often like to trawl the web and find out about the new books and debuts that pique my interest and note them down, because who doesn’t love a good list right???

So here are the first 10 books to be released in 2018 that I have my eye on.

Glass Town by Steven Savile - UK release 13 January 2018 (Fantasy) - St Martin’s Press

“ In 1926, two brothers both loved Eleanor Raines, a promising young actress from the East End of London. But, along with Seth Lockwood, she disappeared, never to be seen again. Isaiah, Seth’s younger brother, refused to accept that she was just gone. It has been seventy years since and the brothers are long dead. But now their dark, twisted secret, threatens to tear the city apart. Seth made a bargain with Damiola, an illusionist, to make a life size version of his most famous trick, and hide away part of London to act as a prison out of sync with our time, where one year passes as one hundred. That illusion is Glass Town. And now its walls are failing. Reminiscent of Clive Barker’s Weaveworld and Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Savile brings out the magic in the everyday. Glass Town is full of gritty urban landscapes, realistic characters, conflict, secrets, betrayals, magic, and mystery.”

Swan Song by Kerry Andrew - UK release 25 January 2018 (Literary Fiction) - Jonathan Cape

“ In this stunningly assured, immersive and vividly atmospheric first novel, a young woman comes face-to-face with the volatile, haunted wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. Polly Vaughan is trying to escape the ravaging guilt of a disturbing incident in London by heading north to the Scottish Highlands. As soon as she arrives, this spirited, funny, alert young woman goes looking for drink, drugs and sex – finding them all quickly, and unsatisfactorily, with the barman in the only pub. She also finds a fresh kind of fear, alone in this eerie, myth-drenched landscape. Increasingly prone to visions or visitations – floating white shapes in the waters of the loch or in the woods – she is terrified and fascinated by a man she came across in the forest on her first evening, apparently tearing apart a bird. Who is this strange loner? And what is his sinister secret? Kerry Andrew is a fresh new voice in British fiction; one that comes from a deep understanding of the folk songs, mythologies and oral traditions of these islands. Her powerful metaphoric language gives Swansong a charged, hallucinatory quality that is unique, uncanny and deeply disquieting,”

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar - UK release 25 January 2018 (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism) - Harvill Secker

“One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid. As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course, on which they will learn that priceless things come at the greatest cost. Where will their ambitions lead? And will they be able to escape the destructive power mermaids are said to possess? In this spell-binding story of curiosity and obsession, Imogen Hermes Gowar has created an unforgettable jewel of a novel, filled to the brim with intelligence, heart and wit.”

The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin - UK release 1 February 2018 (Historical Fiction) - Hodder & Stoughton

“ The year is 1831 Down the murky alleyways of London, acts of unspeakable wickedness are taking place and no one is willing to speak out on behalf of the city’s vulnerable poor as they disappear from the streets. Out of these shadows comes Hester White, a bright young woman who is desperate to escape the slums by any means possible. When Hester is thrust into the world of the aristocratic Brock family, she leaps at the chance to improve her station in life under the tutelage of the fiercely intelligent and mysterious Rebekah Brock. But whispers from her past slowly begin to poison her new life and both she and Rebekah are lured into the most sinister of investigations. Hester and Rebekah find themselves crossing every boundary they’ve ever known in pursuit of truth, redemption and passion. But their trust in each other will be tested as a web of deceit begins to unspool, dragging them into the blackest heart of a city where something more depraved than either of them could ever imagine is lurking … “

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - UK release 8 February 2018 (Mystery) - Raven Books

“A brilliantly original high concept murder mystery from a fantastic new talent: Gosford Park meets Inception, by way of Agatha Christie ‘Somebody’s going to be murdered at the ball tonight. It won’t appear to be a murder and so the murderer won’t be caught. Rectify that injustice and I’ll show you the way out.’ It is meant to be a celebration but it ends in tragedy. As fireworks explode overhead, Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of the house, is killed. But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot. The only way to break this cycle is to identify the killer. But each time the day begins again, Aiden wakes in the body of a different guest. And someone is determined to prevent him ever escaping Blackheath…”

The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements - UK release 8 February 2018 (Gothic/Horror) - Headline Review

“ The Coffin Path by Katherine Clements is an eerie and compelling seventeenth-century ghost story set on the dark wilds of the Yorkshire moors. For fans of Michelle Paver and Sarah Waters, this gothic tale will weave its way into your imagination and chill you to the bone. ‘The vibrant new voice of historical fiction’ - Suzannah Dunn. Mercy Booth has lived at Scarcross, the old hall just off the coffin path, for all her life. The moors and the house are in her blood - and her soul. Ellis Ferreby is a mysterious, unpredictable outsider who arrives there unexpectedly and finds himself increasingly drawn into her world. But the house holds a tainted history. And the moor top hides something far darker…”

The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson - UK release 8 February 2018 (Historical Fiction) - Two Roads

“ In 1627 Barbary pirates raided the coast of Iceland and abducted some 400 of its people, including 250 from a tiny island off the mainland. Among the captives sold into slavery in Algiers were the island pastor, his wife and their three children. Although the raid itself is well documented, little is known about what happened to the women and children afterwards. It was a time when women everywhere were largely silent. In this brilliant reimagining, Sally Magnusson gives a voice to Ásta, the pastor’s wife. Enslaved in an alien Arab culture Ásta meets the loss of both her freedom and her children with the one thing she has brought from home: the stories in her head. Steeped in the sagas and folk tales of her northern homeland, she finds herself experiencing not just the separations and agonies of captivity, but the reassessments that come in any age when intelligent eyes are opened to other lives, other cultures and other kinds of loving. The Sealwoman’s Gift is about the eternal power of storytelling to help us survive. The novel is full of stories - Icelandic ones told to fend off a slave-owner’s advances, Arabian ones to help an old man die. And there are others, too: the stories we tell ourselves to protect our minds from what cannot otherwise be borne, the stories we need to make us happy.”

Folk by Zoe Gilbert - UK release 8 February 2018 (Fantasy/Literary Fiction) - Bloomsbury

“ Every year they gather, while the girls shoot their arrows and the boys hunt them out. The air is riddled with spiteful shadows - the wounds and fears and furies of a village year. On a remote and unforgiving island lies a village unlike any other: Neverness. A girl is snatched by a water bull and dragged to its lair, a babe is born with a wing for an arm and children ask their fortunes of an oracle ox. While the villagers live out their own tales, enchantment always lurks, blighting and blessing in equal measure. Folk is a dark and sinuous debut circling the lives of one generation. In this world far from our time and place, the stories of the islanders interweave and overlap, their own folklore twisting fates and changing lives. A captivating, magical and haunting debut novel of breathtaking imagination, from the winner of the 2014 Costa Short Story Award.”

The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale - UK release 8 February 2018 (Fantasy/Historical Fiction) - Del Rey

“Do you remember when you believed in magic? The Emporium opens with the first frost of winter. It is the same every year. Across the city, when children wake to see ferns of white stretched across their windows, or walk to school to hear ice crackling underfoot, the whispers begin: the Emporium is open! It is 1917, and London has spent years in the shadow of the First World War. In the heart of Mayfair, though, there is a place of hope. A place where children’s dreams can come true, where the impossible becomes possible – that place is Papa Jack’s Toy Emporium. For years Papa Jack has created and sold his famous magical toys: hobby horses, patchwork dogs and bears that seem alive, toy boxes bigger on the inside than out, ‘instant trees’ that sprout from boxes, tin soldiers that can fight battles on their own. Now his sons, Kaspar and Emil, are just old enough to join the family trade. Into this family comes a young Cathy Wray – homeless and vulnerable. The Emporium takes her in, makes her one of its own. But Cathy is about to discover that while all toy shops are places of wonder, only one is truly magical… “

The Philosopher’s Flight by Tom Miller - UK release 13 February 2018 (Fantasy) - Simon & Schuster

“ A thrilling debut from ER doctor turned novelist Tom Miller, The Philosopher’s Flight is an epic historical fantasy set in a World-War-I-era America where magic and science have blended into a single extraordinary art. “Like his characters, Tom Miller casts a spell.” (Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club and The Last Bookaneer) Eighteen-year-old Robert Weekes is a practitioner of empirical philosophy—an arcane, female-dominated branch of science used to summon the wind, shape clouds of smoke, heal the injured, and even fly. Though he dreams of fighting in the Great War as the first male in the elite US Sigilry Corps Rescue and Evacuation Service—a team of flying medics—Robert is resigned to mixing batches of philosophical chemicals and keeping the books for the family business in rural Montana, where his mother, a former soldier and vigilante, aids the locals. When a deadly accident puts his philosophical abilities to the test, Robert rises to the occasion and wins a scholarship to study at Radcliffe College, an all-women’s school. At Radcliffe, Robert hones his skills and strives to win the respect of his classmates, a host of formidable, unruly women. Robert falls hard for Danielle Hardin, a disillusioned young war hero turned political radical. However, Danielle’s activism and Robert’s recklessness attract the attention of the same fanatical anti-philosophical group that Robert’s mother fought years before. With their lives in mounting danger, Robert and Danielle band together with a team of unlikely heroes to fight for Robert’s place among the next generation of empirical philosophers—and for philosophy’s very survival against the men who would destroy it. In the tradition of Lev Grossman and Deborah Harkness, Tom Miller writes with unrivaled imagination, ambition, and humor. The Philosopher’s Flight is both a fantastical reimagining of American history and a beautifully composed coming-of-age tale for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider.”

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